Falling Up
by Lady Eponine Black
Summary: Remus Lupin and Eponine Thenardair both know what its like to be different-and scorned. But is Remus's love enough to turn Eponine away from the barricades? Or is it already to late?
1. Meeting On The Bridge

"Eponine."

She turns, surprised, startled. A cool wind blows of the river, poking at her dark matted dark hair, whipping her ragged brown skirt against her ankles. One thin, rough hand is curved around the cold steel railing of the bridge, her bare feet gripping the cold ground like it s her only hope, her dirty chemise hanging off her skeletal frame. like Her acid, intense eyes glare at the dark haired man, shining like two bonfires that smolder with ash. She does not recognize him, this shabby long-limbed man with the kind eyes. But he knows her name.

" What is it?" she says in her harsh, abrasive voice. " What do you want?"

" What do I want?" he says, almost to himself. His voice is soft, low, so that she has to lean forward to hear him over the rushing of the river. " Eponine-"

" Who are _you_? You know who_ i_ am." She sounds almost insulted, as though knowing her name was an offense to her pride.

" I? I am Remus."

He speaks French, but his voice is strange, his accent foreign and weird.

"You- you ain't from 'ere, are you?"

He sighs, and his pleasant dark eyes are sad, he doesn't answer. "You are, then?"

"No, you are right. I am not. Not from here."

" Where, then?" she asks, letting a hit of curiosity intrude in her voice.

" Somewhere. You wouldn't understand. somewhere different then here."

She nods, satisfied. For a minuet she is silent, her fingers tracing shaky patterns on the rough metal of the railing.

"How do you…. know me name?"

" Ah. I spoke to a man a little while ago. He told me to come and fetch you. He said you'd be here."

"Oh. A man?"

" Yes. Very handsome. snide, if thats the word i'm after."

" Montparnasse."

" Yes. that was it. He said he wanted you for something, to go somewhere. sounded urgent."

" Ph." She sighed, turning back to the churning river, looking suddenly weak and repulsive in the wan light of the setting sun.

" You don't want to?"

She shrugged her bony shoulders, and didn't answer for a minuet, her face drawn and shadowed

" Wantin' doesn't have nothing to do with it. I ain't got no choice."

" No?"

" No. but- It ain't matter no way." She smiled, displaying several missing teeth.

" Why not?"

His face displayed nothing but sincere kindness, but she recoiled as though she'd been slapped

" I ain't know why i'm talkin' to you anyways. I better go. Thank you, Remus, for tellin' me. Montparnasse'll be wonderin where i've got to by now."

She turns to leave, but he grabs her arm. She spins around, an angry spark in her eyes, her face hard.

" What the Hell!"

" Wait, Eponine. Don't go."

" Why not? I need to git over to him, i'll be in trouble if i don't, i-."

" Wait, Eponine. I-"

" I ain't got no time for this. I'm sorry, Remus."

She wenches out of his grasp, and ducks into an alleyway, in a minuet she is gone. Remus Lupin sighs, and gazes out over the river. The night is falling, great chunks of blackness falling up into the sky. The crescent moon reminds him of why he is here, and his eyes close briefly. he remembers her haunted, sallow face, and terrible flaming eyes. she reminded him of himself after a full moon. was it possible that... No. that was absurd. she was simply a poor waif of a girl who had nothing left to live for. He knows what it is like to be bitter in the face of public scorn, and he knows what it is like to believe you are lost. And now he also understands what it is to love without reason someone whom you have watched for days and days, yet won't give you the time of day. But it is not to late for Eponine not yet.

There is still time. There has to be.

* * *

><p><em>anyway, hope you like that. can't wait to write the rest.<em>

_for some reason i have no enthusiasm for updating my current stuff. i do have almost all of the Ties We Hang By written in my head, so i just need to get them on paper. oh well, not like anybodys reading it. i'll probably have time to update more over break though, so yay!_

_have a good holiday season everyone!_

_:) thanks to the peaple who have reviewed my stuff. its very encouraging! so please press that review button...you know you want to. if you do, i'll review some of your stuff...promise!_


	2. Out The Window

She didn't expect any type of welcome when she got home, and she didn't get one. Her father was who knows where with the gang, and her sister was off delivering letters to old rich snobs Eponine felt a stab of pity for Azelma. sweet, nieve Azelma, so unsuited to life as they lived it. She wasn't, by normal standers 'weak', but she lacked that spark necessary for survival on the tough Paris streets. She was like a flower, mused Eponine. A broken flower.

Her mother was crouched by the fire, prodding at the flames, her tartan skirt spread out around her like a tent. Eponine muttered a 'hello.' and wandered over to the window, which was, thanks to her father, now broken. A chilly wind spat out the street, and Eponine glimpsed a familiar shabby figure turning the corner, head bowed against the onslot of cold snow. She turned, with surprise to her mother.

" Who's that there?"

Madame Thénardier joined her daughter at the window.

" Him? Oh him. He's that mans that's just moved in down h'under us. Comes from far away then, ain't 'e. Dunno 'is name. Remus summit-"

"Lupin. Remus Lupin"

" Yes. You know 'im?"

" Ran into 'im a whiles back on the street. Brought me a message. "

" Did 'e? You carry it out then?"

" Yes. 'Parnasse wanted me for summit."

" Wot?"

" Nothin' important. Jus' a favor."

" A favor?"

" Yes."

Madame Thénardier turned away from the window, and went back to whatever she was doing, making a great clattering sound, and under her breath keeping up a string of curses directed at her-thankfully-absent husband.

" That old skivin' sonuva bitch, 'oh does 'e think 'e is, givin me nothing wots i can use to git us some food, times as bad as they are, and nothing dong about-" and so on and so forth.

Eponine, however, stayed gazing dreamily out into the snow, her eyes swirling over the snowflakes and footprints. She was not thinking about the mysterious Lupin, but of the tenant next door, Marius.

* * *

><p>Marius Pontmercy stamped his feet quickly to shake off the snow. He hung up his coat, and brushed down his tattered grey jacket. Shivering, he glanced around his tidy-yet-bare room to make sure that everything was as he'd left it. You never know what might happen with people like that next door. it was a wonder they hadn't made off with his very table and chair. Not that it would surprise him if they did. They'd had a new tenant a couple of days ago, he remembered. A tattered, tired looking man. Couldn't quite remember his name. Rellius, or Remus. Romulus maybe. Not that it mattered. As far as he was concerned, he was going to have nothing to do with any new neighbor. Trouble. All the Thenardiers have been is trouble. This new guy better not turn out to be like them. Ah well, at least this Remus didn't have a daughter. Even now he could feel Eponines eyes on him through the crack in the wall. Honestly, what filth, what ridicules, scheming, prying filth. While he was undressing! the nerve of that girl! Not that Eponine was a bad girl necessarily; with a different life she might be attractive. Maybe. But he had his beloved Cosette, and some raggedy little waif wasn't going to change that. Marius undressed whistling a revolutionary song Enjolras had taught him. He fell asleep thinking about the barricades that they were planning. 'There Is A Music Of A People Who Are Rising To The Light.' Their time would come. ….<p> 


	3. In the Darkness

A cool wind blew down the narrow, dark alleyway that dwindled to a point, its howling moans echoing in a crescendo of despair and loneliness. Eponine was leaning against the grimy wall, her bony back pressed up against the cold, damp bricks. Her chin almost touched her chest, and her eyes were closed. She was shivering, her skin pale and dirty, yet she seemed relaxed, almost peaceful. She did not hear the quiet footsteps. The man stopped a couple of inches from Eponine, his tired, kid eyes watching the restless movement under her eyelids, caressing her face with his eyes. There they stood, as clouds obscured the weak afternoon sun, as snow fell, lightly dusting Eponines hair. It would have been romantic, if Eponine had been aware of his presence. And then, all of a sudden, she was. Her eyes flew open like frightened doves, and she gasped, trying to jump back, but finding the wall.

"What! Wot the- oh. Remus. You scared me. Wot do ya want?" she looked at him with narrowed eyes, scrutinizing him.

He didn't answer.

" It ain't Parnasse again, is it? 'E was jus 'ere. So what is it then?"

Ever since the night they had first meet, she had run in to Remus a couple of times with the gang. He wasn't quite part of the gang, he was more of an underling, which meant that he would once and a while bring her a message, or a biscuit. She had glimpsed him in the streets too, his hat pulled over his eyes, talking to Montparnasse, who had evidently taken a liking to him. From what she had seen and gathered, Remus was smart; he could read and write very well. Probably that was what 'Parnasse saw in him, because he himself could only do a bit of the latter. (His name) As for Lupin, he had often seen Eponine, sometimes with her sister, sometimes alone, delivering letters or trailing somebody. Sometime it was a very good-looking man that was Marius, who she trailed, her eyes full of hunger. He saw all this, and more.

" Well, Wot?"

"I was talking to your sister-"

" Azelma? Waste of time."

"-She was keeping watch over by the bridge. Is that what your supposed to be doing?"

She gave a shaggy jerk of the head.

" Where did Montparnasse get off to? We need him."

" Wot for?"

" There's a problem."

" Wot sort of problem?"

" If you were actually keeping watch like you were supposed to, there wouldn't _be_ a problem." A bit of weary sharpness edged into his voice.

She shrugged.

" Ain't my business really. I don't give a damn about them." _Or you. _Said her eyes.

" You should. They're your family."

She didn't answer, just pulled her raggedy shawl around her knobby shoulders.

At last :" They don't matter." In raspy whisper that hovered on the chapped lips before dropping into the silence.

" Why not?"

" They don't care about me."

" None of them? I think your mother does." He shook his head, to get the vision of Sirius out of his head. She reminded him of her.

" If she does, i don't care none. This winter, this life, it ain't gonna matter in the long run. Someday, i'll be somewhere better."

There was nothing he could say to that. Indeed, oftentimes he himself had thought in the exact same way that she did. They were silent for a while, he watching her, and she whispering something to herself under her breath. He thought he caught the word 'Marius'. Then he thought he heard voices.

" Eponine."

"Hmm?"

" You should get going. I'll bet by now they've got 'Parnasse."

That got her attention. She swore, and pushed herself away from the wall, her eyes glowing fire in into snowy darkness.

" Damn. By now 'e'll ave ratted me out, jus to help save 'is stupid ass."

" That's him alright.

" Yeah, 'tis."

" Be careful."

She gave a bark of laughter, strangely inhuman.

" I've been runnin' from bluebottles before. They ain't gonna nab me."

" Your sister?"

Eponine groaned.

"Bumblin' nitwit. She'll be no 'elp im sure. If we're nabbed, it'll be 'er fault." She turned down the alleyway. " Catch ya later, Remus." Then she was gone.

Remus was alone in the snowy semi-darkness, his eyes fixed on the opening of the alley long after she had disappeared. The silence of the snowy afternoon reminded him of days spent in the forbidden forest…

" No." he whispered o himself. " Don't think of it." But yet unbidden, the sounds of the battle came back. And he could hear her voice, clear as day, that witch. He could hear her taunting, laughing that mad, crazy laugh as she tortured him Tonks, while he, bound by a spell, was unable to do anything.

_(" CRUCIO, CRUCIO! I'll get you, you filthy mudblood." Bellatrix, wild black hair bouncing, dark violet, crazy, eyes flashing as she dodged the weak curses of the purple haired girl opposite her. It was obvious who was winning. Tonks was an Auror, yes, but no match for the highly trained, conscienceless, Dark Witch, trained by her Lord. Tonks faltered, and Bellatrix took her chance, her insane laugh ringing in the corridor ruined from her spells. _

" _No, God no-"_

"_Crucio, Crucio you mudblood brat. This one is for your traitor mother-CRUCIO-"_

_Tonks screams were like blades in his heart, but worse was the triumphant gleam in Bellatrixes eyes, the obvious pleasure as she tortured his wife-her niece-close and closer to death. _

"_AVADA KADAVRA." Her triumphant laugh. She smirked at him, her face twisted by madness and cruelty. Her cheeks were hollow, her face a mere shadow of whom she was before Azkaban. Like Sirius, Azkaban had changed her, this cruel cousin of Sirius's whom he had never liked. She was still beautiful, yes, nothing could change the beauty of a black, but it was a shadowy, gaunt beauty, hollow and unreal. _

_But then the reality of what she had done sank in._

_His world as he knew it, was over.)_

_(Suddenly he was flying through space, through time. It was like apparition, but…not. There was the sense of not being able to breathe, yes, but it was different, because he had not willed it. Then it was over. It was night, and the stars were out, as bright as he had seen them moments before, outside the forbidden forest. But there were run down buildings, the sound of lapping water the smell of smoke. He saw a great bridge over a river, and then he knew where he was. He was in Paris. But it was not 1998.)_

Lupin tried to shake those bitter memories from his mind, but the stuck like honey. He had to forget. This was his new chance, his new chance at love, at life. and this time, there would be no terrible battle to change all that…..


	4. I love

The cool, late afternoon sun warmed Remus Lupins thinly clad shoulders as he sat on a low brick wall by the Seine. His hands absentmindedly fiddled with a twisted bit of rubbish in his hands, but his eyes stared longingly over the sparkling river.

He was, however, watching the street to, and when a tall, handsome man, with the eyes of a dreamer appeared, Lupin rose from his seat, and hastened over.

"Hey There; Marius,"

The man turned a look of confused worriment in his honey colored eyes.

" Do I know you, Sir?"

" I am your neighbor, Remus Lupin." Though his tone was nothing but pleasant, Lupin saw Marius groan inwardly. His voice however, was calm-Yet slightly tinged with annoyance-when he answered.

"I see. What is your business with me, Remus?"

"I wish to know about the Jondrette Family."

"The Thenardiers?" His voice was strained.

"They are one and the same?"

"Yes."

"Then, Yes. Who are they?"

"Nothing more the common crooks." Spat Marius. "I am sure you know already." He said, contempt blazing in his eyes.

"I do, but that is not what i meant."

"What did you mean then, Sir?"

"I am not sure. The father-Do you know anything about him?"

" That I can answer. He was a soldier at Waterloo."

"Ah! Really?"

"You doubt me?"

"He doesn't seem the type."

"Your right, he does not."

" And the mother? The daughters?"

" The mother? Ah, she was a beast. Nothing good there, sir, she was worthless."

"Was?"

" She is dead."

"Dead? How do you know?"

"That little sniper of a gamin, Gavroche."

" I know him."

"Everybody know him. He was known to go visiting her, he seemed to get along with the family."

"And he told you?"

"He remarked it simply in passing."

"A pity."

"That i doubt. And as for the girls, well, the oldest is brash and disagreeable, the younger a fool." He snorted.

"What do you mean?"

" Eponine is persistent, she is vulgar, and most of all she is to be pitied. It is not her fault. As for the younger-I doesn't know her name- She is a poor little thing, takes her sisters lead in everything. But that is to be expected." He turned to Lupin, "Why do you want to know?"

" No reason. Curious, i guess."

"Its because of them, all that nonsense with the police."

"Really?"

"Yes, scoundrels. That was the last straw. I'm staying with my friend now. That place is a hellhole. Thank god they're locked up."

"Are they?"

"Well, of course. Listen, I've got to go, Remus. If you're interested, come down to the ABC café tomorrow night. We're having a rebellion meeting."

"Sounds good. See you there."

* * *

><p>"Eponine!" he called, cupping his hand around his mouth. It was late, and Eponine was hurrying down the dark path at a very quick rate, so fast and far away that Lupin wasn't sure she could hear. She paused, silhouetted against the backdrop of stormy blue gray sky. "Eponine," he repeated, louder.<p>

"Wot?" she called, her raspy voice breaking.

"I wanted to talk to you."

" I can't 'ear ya"

"Come over here."

Within seconds she was in front of him, her eyes dull and lackluster. She looked worse then when he'd last seen her, three weeks ago in the ally. Her face was bruised and thinner, her chemise falling off one bony elbow, exposing grimy skin. Her skirt was in rags, a bit of the rough fabric training on the ground. She had a ratty gray shawl around her shoulders, and her face was drawn in sadness.

"Wot?"

"I haven't seen you in a while. I was worried."

She laughed, and it sounded slightly crazed, slightly dizzying.

" Ain't got no reason ta be. I've jus been in the lockup for a bit. Ain't nothin wrong with that."

She shivered in the night cold air, the shadows under her eyes deep and weary. Now he could see how worse she looked for the stay in prison, how emaciated and shaking. He reached out a hand to gently stroke her shoulder, but she pulled back.

"I wasn't trying to hurt you. Are you alright?" the later was said in a gentler, softer tone caressed with worry. But she snarled at him as though he'd offended her.

" I ain't no pretty girl to be fawned over. Ain't none of yer businesses wot's 'appinin with me. I'm fine. So jus leave me alone." She straightened her shoulders, her face tough and proud.

"I heard your mothers been killed."

"Wots it to yew? Dead in prison, and there ain't nobody 'ho cares. Least of all me."

"I'm sorry."

" I ain't. Listen, i gotta go."

She turned to leave, and as she did her shawl slipped to the side, exposing a large raw purple and green bruise on her neck. He gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, exposing a very angry face.

"Wot?"

" How did that happen? Are you alright?"

"I told yew, it ain't none of yew filthy business."

" Who did that to you?" his voice was low.

"Ain't matter none."

"It was Montparnasse, wasn't it?"

" So wot if it was? Anyway, it ain't. And its me own business. And what do yew care anyway?"

" I care about you. He shouldn't hurt you like that. Don't try to deny it. I've seen him do it before. He shouldn't do that."

" None of yew business."

" It should be. If he's hurting you-"

"I don't care! And yew has no right to talk to me about that. I jus want yew to leave me _**ALONE**_!"

And with that she turned and ran, leaving a very befuddled Lupin behind her.

* * *

><p>"<em>I <em>_love him."_

She thought as she traipsed along the dark river, reflecting the cloudy nighttime sky.

"_I love Marius."_

* * *

><p>"<em>I love her."<em>

Thought Remus, as he walked slowly home along the darkening river.

"_I love Eponine."_


End file.
